Posted: Fri, Oct 19, 2001, 12:20 PM ET (1620 GMT)
The crew of the International Space Station flew a Soyuz spacecraft from one docking port on the International Space Station to another early Friday. The three-man Expedition Three crew boarded the Soyuz docked to the nadir docking port on the Zarya module and undocked at 6:48 am EDT (1048 GMT). They maneuvered the Soyuz to the port on the new Pirs module, docking at 7:04 am EDT (1104 GMT). The maneuver frees up the Zarya port for a new Soyuz spacecraft, scheduled for launch at 4:59 am EDT (0859 GMT) Sunday from Baikonur. The crew of that Soyuz flight, Russians Victor Afanasyev and Konstantin Kozeev and French astronaut Claudie Haignere, will dock with the station on October 23 and stay for a week before returning to Earth on the Soyuz moved to the Pirs module Friday. Moving the older Soyuz module means that the docking port on Pirs will not be occupied when Expedition Three crew members Vladimir Dezhurov and Frank Culbertson conduct a spacewalk using the Pirs airlock on November 5.